grime is uk hip hop

sapstra

New member
as i was listening to aim high 2 it became clear to me. Grime is British HipHop. I know, it is supposed to descend from rave, is part of the rave continuum, is a british invention and is something completely different from the much maligned uk rap thing. While this may keep the (memory of) youth of ageing ravers alive and give some national pride, when you just listen to it, grime IS british hiphop, really. It has some inventive producers and really good mc's (i like it) but it is hiphop.

The question of grime as a genre breaking in the US isn't right either, it's the question of particular uk hiphop artists and producers making it in the states, as hiphop as a genre already broke some time ago.

It seems to me that hiphop fans over the world listen to american artists and their local ones. French hiphoppers listen to american and french artists, south africans to american and south african artists, and the british listen to americans and grime.

As for interest in grime outside of the UK, on this board i see this mainly coming from Canada and Australia, two countries with strong cultural ties to the UK (the same queen!) and one with a strong desire to distinguish itself from its big neighbour.

So in my view, a grime artist making it big in the states would be the hiphop equivalent of Oasis making it there. Sorry.
 

dj so su mi

MAKE LOVE NOT PEACE
hey peter, i agree with you. except you seem to have forgotten one minor detail - the US too is a descendant of the British empire. although, of course, the ties with the Queen broke a long time ago.

maybe this thread is for the dissenters (i haven't really checked the other zillion grime threads on here or ILM of wherever)... i'm sorry too, but UK grime can never be more than a novelty act in the US - a handful of artists may move a lot of units but other than that, the "grime scene" isn't of too much interest to Americans, 'cuz the hip hop scene in the US, despite what the nonbelievers say, is quite healthy, at least in terms of numbers and dedication.

that's my 2 cents... 2 pence? which is worth more anyways? :D
 

outraygeous

Well-known member
i agree somewhat.
the lines between grime and hip hop is becoming more and more blurred. it seems if youve done a couple things in grime and then you make a track at 110bpm, its still grime and not hip hop due to your padt relation to grime.
its also become apparent that the media and alot of people who havent stayed with garage thru the changes are making the grime scene an mc oriented genre of music. whereas if youve been in garage, you would know that grime are really instrumentals.
more and more mcs are now calling themselves artists( if they would of went to music skool, they would know thats the worst person 2 be) trying to get major deals.
the whole grime scene is oh so very much like the us hip hop scene with a little less money, of fake money perhaps.
grime fashion - new era caps, akademiks suits
mixtape culture - straight from the states, even our so called grime mixtapes feature us hip-hop intrumentals.
grime vocab - a couple words from the states are seeping into the grime vocab.

overall, the grime attachment with uk garage is becoming weaker and weaker. this could be seen as a good thing as it will let grime breathe. but to me, alot of the big vocal tracks that are hitting the streets just sound like hip hop.

beat + mc = hip-hop/rap music?
 

stelfox

Beast of Burden
at the moment i believe you can feed an entire american family for a week on 2 pence.
referring to this music as "novelty" is pretty ridiculous, though.
yeah, grime is very closely *linked* to US hip-hop, but maybe you should have read the "million other threads" here and on ilm because this has been thrashed out time and time again.
it's a boring issue because, grime is *not* hip-hop, it is its own scene whilst having feet in both that camp and that of the rave 'nuum. it can fli-flop between the two and this is where its strength really is.
while i agree that grime as a genre probably won't break the US (jungle never did, house music never did even though it started there, blah blah blah) and single artists might, categorising it as "unsuccessful hip hop from a funny little island" smacks of american listeners wanting to get a fix on it while still not having to look far beyond their backyard.
 
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mms

sometimes
i would say its not because of the path it has come thru ie hardcore, jungle , garage etc
uk hip hop is a different genre informed mainly by all the stuff that makes up us hip hop with a dash of ja culture.
 

Plasticman

Active member
If you listen to grime for the MC's it's hip hop

If you listen to grime for the riddims it's still a dance genre.
 

Dowee

Well-known member
Grime is not UK Hip Hop IMO. It may similar on the grounds that Grime is to the UK what Hip Hop is to the US. But it deffinately is not uk hip hop. And it deffiantely doesnt originate from any form Hip Hop.

Plasticman posted 'the history of grime' up on RWD Forums a while back, I cant find the thread at the moment.

But yeh, thats my two cents, for what its worth :p
 

luka

Well-known member
it's not a question that can be resolved. you can make a convincing case for either side of the argument, it's a waste of time. it's enough to say that it's far more interesting to say it's not just hiphop/
 

Mika

Active member
Pirate Radio

It's enough to say, listening to grime 'live' - over mixes I've downloaded from Rinse or P2P - is a radically different experience than mixtapes like Aim High or RTR. Hardcore Continuum lineage becomes far more apparent.
 

DJL

i'm joking
I always say to people that some of it sounds like Garage, some of it sounds like Hip Hop and some of it sounds like neither
 
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